A battery for driving a vehicle mounted in an electric vehicle or a hybrid automobile is controlled at a predetermined temperature using a temperature control device such as a heat exchanger for optimizing a charge and discharge function of the battery.
It is often the case that a battery is mounted on a vehicle as a module configured including the above-mentioned temperature control device or the like. As a specific example of the battery mounting case, there has been known a battery cooling device which includes a case which defines a circulatable cooling passage; a battery which is partially or wholly exposed in the cooling passage; an evaporator which is arranged in the cooling passage; a refrigerant bypass passage which is connected to a compressor and a condenser of a refrigerating cycle of an air conditioning device, and is constituted of at least an expansion means and the evaporator; and a blower which is arranged in the cooling passage (see PTL 1).
There may be also a case where batteries are mounted on the vehicle in a state where a plurality of batteries are mounted in one module for obtaining a higher voltage. To be more specific, there has been known a battery cooling system for a vehicle where a plurality of battery packs which are arranged parallel to each other in the horizontal direction are accommodated in a battery box, and the battery packs are cooled by cooling air flown into the battery box, wherein air ducts which spray cooling air to the battery packs are incorporated in the battery box, and the air ducts are arranged parallel to the battery packs in the horizontal direction (see PTL 2).